News

Research Looks Into Preventing Further Resistance to Dewormers

27 June 2016

UK - Research recently published in the Journal of Preventative Veterinary Medicine looks at the quality of advice and how the uptake of best practice in relation to anthelmintic usage can be improved, and why this is so important.

Resistance to anthelmintics, the primary control method for parasitic worms, is becoming increasingly reported and is now widespread across the globe, so it’s imperative that best practice control principles are adopted to delay the further spread of resistance.

“It’s the responsibility of those that prescribe dewormers to advise producers with adequate information on administration best practice, and how to avoid dewormer resistance within herds and flocks,” explained Professor Jacqueline Matthews, project leader based at Moredun, and COWS technical adviser.

“However, it has been documented that there has been poor uptake of some of the key best practice principles at farm level in the UK. The UK Veterinary Medicines Directorate has funded this project focusing on interactions at the point of anthelmintic prescription, to investigate knowledge levels and behaviours affecting the dialogue between prescribers and farmers.

“With the inclusion of further surveys, the overall aim of our work is to find out what barriers there may be that prevent some farmers putting these guidelines into practice, and to provide suggestions as to how to improve the uptake of quality advice in the future.”

The research described in the published paper is intended to determine the level of basic knowledge of parasitic worms, best practice advice, and dispensing legislation among those prescribing dewormers in the UK. It is the first in a series of papers exploring the factors influencing uptake of best practise guidelines by farmers.

The results have shown that both vets and SQPs generally performed very well in the questionnaire, showing a suitable level of understanding when prescribing dewormers.

“This research provides valuable information which can be used to help optimise education programmes for UK prescribers,” said Professor Matthews.

“This is an ongoing study that will continue to look into the views and protocols of all the relevant parties. We know that there is some scope to increase the amount of training that both vets and SQPs receive to improve the quality of advice at the point of purchase.

“We need to work with industry organisations to get more dialogue going between parasitologists, prescribers and farmers, as this is central to effective knowledge transfer and improving advice uptake.”